Music

Canadians cannot point to any musical tradition and call it
uniquely their own. They can claim, however, to have the
world's most varied songbook, thanks to the nation's
multicultural nature.

This scope is very recent, though; until Canada attracted and
accepted hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Third World
countries, its music was almost exclusively European or American in
origin. The grip that European music had on Canada beginning in
colonial times was strongly emotional, religious or social. The
United States had a further impact on our musical
tastes*. Today's immigrants
retain the pleasures of their homeland music and dance.

Canadian involvement in music is ancient, if tenuous at times.
Aboriginal peoples played instruments and performed religious or
ritualistic dances. French missionaries introduced hymns, chants
and carols to Aboriginal peoples as early as 1641**.
English-speaking Church emissaries were equally inventive. Many of
their songs survive in museums and archives today. Ballads are
another form of early Canadian music. Very often they were pitiful
expressions of lonely hearts or lost souls who longed to return
home. The Banks of Newfoundland, Farewell to Nova
Scotia, Un Canadien errant and The Red River
Valley all fit this pattern. Equally important to early
settlers were local marching bands - military, civic or
fraternal.

Philharmonic societies, symphonies, opera companies, music
academies and conservatories, regional choirs, dance studios and
ballet companies were formed nationwide. Victoria (1859), Quebec
City (1868), Toronto (1886 and 1901), Montreal (1894) and Winnipeg
(1939) became the performing centres of Canada, usually under royal
patronage and invariably dominated by classical music lovers.
Indeed, Canada's most revered musician is Glenn Gould, pianist
and foremost interpreter of J. S. Bach***.

If the urban elites had professional musicians regularly playing
classical works in newly built concert halls, and if ordinary
citizens contented themselves with local bands, singers and dances
(folk, country, swing), then there was little common ground for
universal tastes in music. What has changed this, and tremendously
so, has been electronic recording, radio, television and the
Internet. All have expanded the reach of every musical form and its
performers beyond what anyone could have imagined. And together,
these new media have truly democratized the world of music for
Canadians.